HP to launch Apple iPod clone

HP is about to release a new line of products including an own-branded iPod digital music player. Other new products will be a 42-inch high-definition plasma television, a DVD home theater projecter, new Photosmart printers and an entertainment notebook PC.

Earlier this month, HP executives showed the new products to reporters. They included a Digital Entertainment Center, which works as a personal video recorder and ties together movies, digital music and a stereo, among other functions.

In January, Apple and HP agreed to collaborate on an HP-branded iPod. In exchange for having iTunes preinstalled on HP consumer machines and a shortcut to iTunes Music Store on the desktops of HP PCs and laptops HP would get to sell its own branded version of the iPod.

The HP-branded digital music player is part of a broader push by HP into the increasingly crowded consumer electronics market. HP chose to hold off the release of its music player until Apple introduced the fourth-generation iPod so its own line of players would carry the latest design.

The price and specifications of HP's 'iPod' will be exactly the same as Apple's popular iPod: $299 for a 20GB one, and $499 for the 40GB version.